Over the next few weeks, as we come to finale of the prospect season with the Memorial Cup which will feature four of the organization's prospects, I will be blogging my own organizational rankings 5 prospects at a time beginning today with the overagers. By the time it is complete, I will be releasing my Top-5 Overage Lightning Prospects, my Top-25 Lightning prospects along with some Honorable Mentions who missed the cut. So lets begin...
First off, what is an "Overage Prospect"? For the sake of these rankings I am counting any prospect who will be 24 years of age or older by the start of next season who has played less than a half a season (41 games) at the NHL level. These are older players, mostly playing in Europe, who I feel could step in immediately and provide utility for the Lightning organization either at the NHL or AHL level. With many of them, because they play in Europe, money is an issue in signing these prospects as they are already handsomely compensated overseas for being some of the best in their respective nation's club leagues, so it's not feasible to sign all of them. Still, if you're looking for some immediate impact, these are the Lightning's Top-5 Overage Prospects: